What Better Time Than NOW?

I was one of those people who loved to make resolutions for the upcoming year. I would write down all the things I hoped to accomplished in the new year and all the things I intended to leave behind in the old one. My lists included finding better work, losing weight, starting school, traveling more, reading more, going to church more, and any other good thing you can think of. Eventually, I also started listing things that were not so good. I vowed to leave behind toxic people, bad habits, and stale situations.

Just like many other people’s resolution list, though, mine would stop being tended to before the middle of the year. Sometimes I couldn’t even find the physical list. It wouldn’t have mattered if I did actually run across it because I had so much going on in the way of distractions, problems, and other shenanigans, that I wouldn’t have paid it any mind anyway. I was too focused on the things that I had vowed to leave behind to pay attention to the things I wanted to accomplish. At the end of that new year, I would find myself in the same, if not a worse, situation that I was at the beginning.

What I’ve learned is that success requires intention. Intention requires planning. Planning requires execution. I don’t care what you’re attempting to accomplish, if you don’t formulate some kind of plan, you’re likely to fail. You don’t have to notate every little step, but you do need some type of guideline.

Planning and Doing

With the knowledge that you need a plan, here’s where the real effort comes in: you must execute that plan! Nothing that you plan will work if you don’t. All those things you want to accomplish are just waiting for you to act on them. Here’s what I’ve found: very few things that we dream of, pray for, or aspire to require a future start date. You can start working on them today! Yeah, you can. In some cases, the things we want to accomplish requires that we do some type of research in order to get underway. Guess what you could do right after you’re finished reading this? Research. Guess what you can add to your to-do for tomorrow? More research. If you’re aiming to lose a little weight, guess what’s standing between you and the walking trail or the sidewalk in front of your house? Nothing and nobody but you. Just start moving. Today, tomorrow at the latest.In my case, there is no reason to wait

In my case, there is no reason to wait until January 1, 2017, to set the wheels in motion. In fact, waiting will only put me behind the 8-ball. My writing colleagues, my competition, the blogging community, and the speaking community has not slept. Things are still pumping so I have to, also.

If you want to accomplish those big things, which means working on the little ones, get a jump-start. Start working now. There’s no reason to wait.